Public Participation and the Effect of Environmental Governance in China: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

The public plays a key role in environmental governance systems. Many studies have discussed the effects of public participation on environmental governance in China from different perspectives. However, there has been no systematic integrated analysis of the effects of public participation on environmental governance and the causes of its heterogeneity. To help fill this gap, we developed a comprehensive analysis framework of the regional differences–participation method–pollution type, and 85 effect sizes were tested by the meta-analysis method. The results showed that there was a weak positive correlation between public environmental participation and the environmental governance effect (ES = 0.044, p < 0.001). The correlation between the two was regulated by regional space and pollution type. The promotion effect of public participation on waste and noise was significantly higher than that of central and western areas. However, there was no significant difference between the different participation methods. Taken together, these results have important significance for increasing public participation and optimizing the effect of environmental governance.